FORWARD OPERATING BASE APALIS, 30 KILOMETERS NORTH OF KDARSAC, ORHLEAN ARCHIPELAGO, FARRACKGE : DAY 172 , 1000 HOURS


The few days after CSGT Mourall's death were a blur of questioning civillians, taking potshots from unseen snipers and finding more dead civillians. Ion Company and the rest of the 3333rd Marine Regiment had packed up and left to return to their home station planet of Fondor.

So when 3rd Platoon was ordered back to Joint AirBase Orhelayn to pick up supplies with the Supply Squad of HQ Platoon, everyone was excited to have a break from their usual routine.

"Anyone want to the Coruscant Chicken on base?" asked Wolverton as they sat around in their squad hooch. "Me! It's been years since I had one! Never thought I'd have one again in a place like this…" Kat trailed off. "You know it's a hell of a place when a fast food restaurant is the best option here…" "You tell me, Rorry. At least it's better than most of the food they serve us at the mess hall."

"Hey, one of the Army soldiers told me that there's a food court in the PX, and the best one of all : Charra Beverages and Caf." interjected Thule. "Damn! Really?" yelled Rhyss as he shot up from reading in bunk. Off all places he expected the galactic-spanning caf chain to have a store at, a large joint-branched military airbase in the middle of a warzone isn't it.

"Sure does," Thule confirmed. "I better stock up on from caf there then. The ones in the caf packs from the mess hall taste like Mustafarian ash." Rhyss visibly recoiled.

"How long are we going to be there? I think I need to scope the PX for all sorts of things," inquired Kat. "I've heard 4, maybe 5 hours. But knowing how the Marines operate…" she slowly stopped.

"Something tells me when we get there, you'd be able to shop there to your hearts content." smirked Thule.


3 HOURS LATER


When they arrived at JAB Orhelayn (thankfully without incident), they were directed to a motorpool near one of the supply depots. As 2LT Cavell, GYSGT Wojhee and the supply Marines went inside, some perched on the vehicles and various structures, while some others just laid against a wall as they waited.

"Hey, Merrick," asked SGT Lovell. "You seem like a fish on a fire grill." "Just… bored, Cmand'Sarge. It's been twenty standard minutes. I just wanted to get this done." "Damn right. I've talked to Leftenant Cavell. He said the faster we wrap this up, the more time we have to snoop around here, load up on some food and items from that huge PX there." He pointed towards the top of a large five-floor building about two hundred meters behind them.

Kat raised her eyebrows. 2LT Cavell was as fresh of an officer as he can be - he had arrived from Officers' Fundamental Academy to Fox Company two weeks before Kat herself arrived at Naboo.

He was a wildcard in all sense - Was he a compassionate officer? Was he excellent in combat? Could he lead Marines under fire?

No one knew at the time, but despite his inexperience, he had proved himself to be the former. The latter part, even with their 10-minute firefight, hasn't fully proved his mettle as an infantry officer.

"Where does that accent come from, Command Sergeant Lovell?" The question came out of left field, but she has always been curious ever since she hears him speak.

"Ah. My parents were Imperial military defectors, you see? They were stationed at the same planet on the Mid Rim during the last big war," his voice betrayed a mix of sadness, disgust and anger.

"They had enough, and escaped on some smuggler's ship, then turned in themselves to Republic authorities when they were dropped off on Corellia. My mother was pregnant with me at the time." His voice changed into relief.

"The accent made them recieve the hellest of discrimnations, and after four years, they moved to Alderaan to work for a forestry company. My mother ran security, while my father was a communications analyst. Other than reavers and opportunists, it was relatively calm, even with the civil war there. The company was a Republic sympathizer and their accent made them sound like nobles, so no one knew to come after them or rat them out."

"Growing up with Imperial parents, Corellian shipbuilders and foresters with Alderaanian accents made for a posh smugglers' accent, so you know..." He lit up with a wide smile..

"That's fascinating. What made you want to join the Marines then?"

"I wanted to rebel against my parents. They were against me joining the military after what they went through. I wanted an adventure, so I chose the Marines because I heard it is the toughest service." "Out of spite, then?" Kat's eyebrow raised. "That's a harsh way of putting it. It took me picking up Corporal for them to finally accept. That's around… four and a half-years? My sister was much more open. She was the only one to come to my bootcamp graduation." He beamed with pride.

"Sounds like she's very supportive, Command Sergeant." "She is!" He swelled with pride.

The platoon leaders came back, and they spent the following hours loading in supplies from the depot such as food, water, extra equipment such as long range scanners, extra vehicle patrs and surveillance droids that recently arrived on-world for them. When they finished, it was almost sunset.

"Alright, Marines! We're done here. Go do whatever you want, but bring a buddy and stay out of trouble. We'll meet back in two standard hours!" "Raar!" the Marines' short acknowledgement bounced off the thin walls of the supply cache building.

"Merrick! Want to come along with me?" It was Wolverton. It was then she remembered their plans earlier that day. "Of course, Rorry! Let's go." "Wait up for a while - Argyll and Caford are tagging along." They leaned against the wall, rifles snuck into their sides. Kat looked as he pulled out an electrocig and smoked a puff. His tall and buff frame, combined with his ginger hair and emerald green eyes made him a popular candidate for holographists, photographers and local recruiting papers.

Rorry was previously married for a year to a Twi'lek woman when he first was in the Marines, and after their amicable divorce, it was known that he was popular with many beings from various species and genders, and he was proud of it. "What can I say? You don't say no to good things!" Kat recalled him say during a squad downtime conversation.

But he was a good Marine and a good person, and his personal exploits does not matter to Kat, Fox Company, the 605th Marine Regiment or the Galactic Republic Marine Corps. She remember the time he stood up for her during that post-action report, even though she wasn't into the fold yet.

When Argyll and Caford arrived, they all walked towards the Coruscant Chicken, rifles slung on their backs.

"Funny, isn't it? You'd think that when we go to war, we'd be sleeping in muddy trenches and eating out of old cans… Not going to a fast resto-chain or having a shopping center on base." Rorry wondered loudly. "Where have you been, Rorry? Not during the last big war we did that. Not even a millenia ago." replied Argyll. "Doesn't stop the holofilms from showing it that way. I bought into that rough-rider image before I joined. Thought I needed to prove I was tough."

"Since when do pretentious filmmakers and their audiences ever bothered to think to make it right?" "No one would want to see a holo of us sitting around in a hole waiting to be shot at or getting ourselves into dumb things. They wanted to see us run through hails of bolts to kill thousands of Imps! I wished that would happen." They all laughed.

"Be careful what you wish, Marines. The moment they DO lob bolts and bomb at us, we'd be begging for resto-chains and PXes." said Caford.

Kat was sightly worried. Caford's jovial shell was starting to crack.

They entered the busy Coruscant Chicken. The red and blue-themed restaurant was filled with servicemembers of all branches - from warfighting Republic Army troopers with their full-body plastoid armor and T-visored helmets and Marines with their high-cut helmets and plate carriers signifying their role and status as light "infantry".

In contrast, Naval Sailors and AeroSpace Aviators with light loaded-vests with only two or three magazines, individual first aid kits, hydration devices and commlinks. Some even carried less. Kat suspected those are officers. All were armed with at least from a blaster pistol all the way to large assault cannons - the only ones who weren't were the resto staff.

The four Marines placed their orders before sitting down in a table booth. A voice called them out from afar. "Fox Company!"

A Zeltronian came up to them in Army-issued armor, helmet down, with medium-sized randomized splotches of sage green, dark and light brown, dark green and tan all across an olive green background. It was the opposite of the Marines digital camo. The three thin, dark blue stripes on his right pauldron indicated he was a Sergeant 3rd Class.

"You two," he gestured at Wolverton and Argyll, " You remember me, don't you?" "Of course we do, you most likely had a hand in screwing up our supply orders!" shot Argyll.

"Where are my manners?"Rorry sarcastically whined. "Boots," Wolverton knifed his hand towards the trooper. "This is Punaavj "Leko" Lekolantou, He used to be a part of 2nd Battalion's supply section. Then he became a huge coward and ran off to the Army."

As the Zeltronian scowled at him, it made sense to her why he called them out - All Marines wore a small, subdued-colour version of their unit patches on their left sleeve, even in combat ops. The only other unique identifier was an even smaller rank indicator patch, required on their plate carriers, with Marines nestling it among magazine and gear pouches to avoid being too conspicuous, but still noticable enough that friendlies of all branches could identify them if needed.

In contrast to the army, who had more obvious identifiers such as colored rank-stripes and different units and occupational specialisation having vastly different uniforms. The Marines allowed its members to customize and modulate their uniforms and gear, but all had to be of the same camo pattern and meet a diverse and dizzying set of rules.

Kat had never seen Republic Army troops up close in a combat zone, and all the difference had never been more stark to her than that moment. She had read on interservice rivalries between the Republic Army and Marine Corps, but she had never imagined it to be like this.

"Yes, it is my fault that the Marines don't have enough funding, relevant equipment or actual good leaders!" "Or is it that you want to bow out from getting into the thick of it? Seems to be useless now that you ended up here as us, anyway..." jeered Wolverton. Leko fumed. "You should be lucky we're of different branches. If not.."he looked like he was about to scream, but ended it with a " You were always a dungbag boot." He made an about turn on his heel and walked off.

"That was a bit harsh, Corporals…" said Caford timidly. "Silence, boot. Go take our meals." said Argyll. They spent the rest of their time eating the meal with gusto - military mess hall mass-produced meals always consisted of overly dried, powdered,non-perishable items,or either drowned in liquids and sauces for easier cooking. Actual meals that were roasted or fried were rare, and even then the cooks and their droids tended to screw it up.

Most military members would rather trust a bad civilian cook over a decent military one, and this meal proved it. Coruscanti fried chicken is said to best in the Inner Core Worlds, and for them, the meal was the best that they had since arriving onworld. After they finished, the signalled a cleaner droid to come to their table before getting up. Kat had an idea.

"We've got an hour left. How about we go to the PX? Have a look around, so you see…?"

The other shrugged their shoulders that indicated, "Why not?"

The PX was a hundred meters away, as they walked, the sights and sounds of the base they saw were so bizarre for a base on a combat zone. A few smaller food stalls with mostly selling what seems to be localized food sold by Republic-employed Farrackgians lined the one side of the street. The other was filled with pre-fabricated barracks made of concrete and metal. Though almost everyone was armed and armored, they strolled with the ease of a night out in Coruscant's Galactic Market.

"I wonder what will happen if a mortar attack comes in?"asked Caford, hand on his chin . "They'll do the same thing we did here and back at the FOB - take cover, have weapons ready, wait for the all clear." replied Bea. "Oh, right. I forgot. Our first day here, huh?"

They entered the PX. It was the same as any other PX, but they then noticed the unlikeliest of things - things such as food and entertainment were in larger numbers and more diverse, owing perhaps to the diversity of its inhabitants as well as their needs. Ranging from meal kits from Balmorra, (non-alcoholic) beverages from Ord Mantell to candies from Ruusan, it provided familiarities of one's home system, if not one's home planet.

Bea and Rorry split up from Kat and Hunter, leaving them to roam around and " just return to the platoon back at the vics, alright?" They looked around the aisles, Caford picking out caffeine sticks for energy on night ops, while Kat just picked out random snacks (because anything was better than the ration crackers they had) until she found something that caught her eye.

It was Brentaalian sailor's biscuits - dry sweet or salty crackers that had been a part of her homeworld's spacefarers for millenia. She had tasted nothing like it ever since signing up.

It would be nice to have a taste of home again.


1945 HOURS LOCAL TIME


"What in the stars are in those packs?" asked 2LT Cavell.

"Just some nice things from home, sir," she replied sheepishly.

"Well, get packing up - we're leaving! The faster we get back to the FOB, the faster we get to rest!"

"Aye, Lieutenant!" Kat replied as she tried to quickly pack.


HIGHWAY CRESH-20, EN ROUTE TO KDARSAC - 2033 HOURS


It is said that the loneliest person in a military vehicle is the turret gunner. As Kat tried looking through the turret's weapon optics, the only thing to accompany her was the occasional radio crackle, the local wildlife moving through the stream and jungles beside their road, oblivious to the fact that the Marines could see them with their thermal+night optics. The other turrets swung slowly inside their allocated sectors, scanning for enemies.

The most dangerous thing to her at the time was however, her thoughts.

"Some war this is. We've been here more than two weeks and all we did so far is questioning civvies, checking out dead bodies, have people explode IEDs, fire rockets and mortars at us. No us breaching open doors of enemy strongholds, no epic stand against overwhelming hordes. Nothing. Just fighting cowards and playing police. And eating fast-food and shopping as if we're back on Naboo. Definitely-"

An explosion broke the silence. "Blast. That sounds like it hit us at the convoy front." She turned her head to look through the ul-transparisteel barrier that protected her sides. The frontmost vehicle had dropped and was on fire. "Blast it! It's 1st Squad…"

The convoy of Lynxes stopped.

"... in process… evac… casualties…" the turret's radio crackled on an off. Sharp pings began bouncing off the turret and vehicles.

"This is Fauwcon, taking small arms fire over," Kat called as she tried to swing her repeating blaster, searching for the enemy. The Marines near the front exited the vehicle to extract the casualties. Others returned fire.

The pings continued. "I think they're using flash-hiders. I can hear them, but I can't see them."

"Then find them!" yelled Lovell through his headset. Kat tried to cycle through the turret's optics settings, trying to find one that could help. None did. She checked another potentially useful tool - a device that detected atmospheric turbulence and abnormal sound waves . It was inaccurate, but inaccurate is better than nothing.

She sweeped through the jungle treetops and cliffs. The device picked some disturbances. "Got you!" "150 meters bearings 70-150, 50 meters above, on the trees and cliffs!" She started shooting at the enemies - still unseen, but no less deadly.

She chose one spot. Based on the constant, fast soundwave disturbances, it was clear this one was firing frantically, trying to pour bullets downrange. Kat lined everything - her weapon, turret and helmet optics, took a deep breath, and fired. She didn't let go of the trigger, even when it was obvious the shooter had stopped. It took a while for her to snap out and started firing at other targets instead.

Kat saw the sudden heat flash of a rocket on the far left side her optics. She swung herself to hit the rocketeer, but they had hidden out of sight. The rocket impacted near the middle of the convoy, behind some trees and bushes, but it was enough to knock two Marines onto the ground. The two got up and continued to fire.

"We're clear! Mount back up and let's get out of here!" The Marines who had dismounted hurriedly got back in as the new lead vehicle took its place up front. A Lynx had chained itself to the damaged vehicle, now with a gaping hole in its right side. As soon as the last vehicle passed by, the Lynx towed its damaged brother on it's rear - the repulsorlift barely worked, but at least it's not dragging on the ground.

Bullets still struck their vehicle as they drove out of the ambush site.

"Who was in the vehicle?" Kat asked them. Her stomach churned.

"1st Squad - Alpha Team," chirped back the turret radio. It was SGT Lovell.

2LT Cavell, SGT Kalte, CPL Velkerr and LCPL Nlahec. We'd better move quickly. They'd bleed out if we don't get them to an aid station soon.

"Casualties?" "Nlahec died immediately when the projectile went through the driver's compartment," Nlahec was a silent kid - he joined at 17 standard years, earlier than the typical 18 or 19 of the Republic military. He wanted to prove to his family and friends he was no slouch. But now he was gone, taken in an instant by an explosive projectile. She wondered if he even felt anything.

"...Kalte and Velkerr are hurt bad-" "Our platoon leader?" asked Kat suddenly.

"He got a small chunk to the face, but when he got out and returned fire, he got a bullet to his arm."

"Damn it."


FOB APALIS - 2142 HOURS


They were greeted with a small army of droids and Marines as soon as they went through the gates and into their designated motorpool. It had been 15-20 minutes, Kat estimated, since they escaped the ambush. She hoped they still could be treated.

Don't die. Don't die. Not again.

Meddroids and corpsmen loaded the casualties into stretchers. 2LT Cavell waved them off, insisting "I can still walk. Get the others!"

The Marines from Fox Company's support platoon, along with some repair droids, tried to haul what supplies remained into storage.

Kat scanned over the vehicle as the repair droids started performing maintenance on the vehicles, as is standard every time before and after they went out of the wire.

"Kat. You alright?" "I don't know, Xand. It's supposed to be a normal supply run. We're not even kicking open doors, and yet…" Kat started to sob silently. "I understand. Nothing makes sense out want to talk about it? If not with me, maybe with the behavioral health docs...?" "I'm such a weakling. I'm in the infantry, and yet I'm crying like a youngling! Maybe I'm not cut out for this..."

Xand slung her rifle on her back and put her arm around her. "Listen, Kat... It's normal to cry. Normal beings don't have their friends blown apart or shot every few days. As long as you pick yourself back up after and be strong, and tough it out when we ALL need you to, you can cry in private as much as you want. I think it's the only way to not lose yourself out here."

Kat's sobs lessened as she thought Xand's words over. She was right. Everyone is depending on each other. She couldn't let any of them down now.

She once let the person she cared for the most down. This will not happen again.

Not now, not here, not them.

Kat got up. "I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's services."

"No one does, Kat. But you'll be fine. You have us."


Author's notes and Review Replies

Well... This took a while! I had a really bad case of COVID, so sorry for the late and long updates! I will be working and dealing with long-COVID, so updates will be made at will instead of a set schedule from now on. Hope you enjoyed this one.